11 February 2012

5 tips for taking better adventure photos

Ben Saunders on how to put the sense of adventure into your travel pictures (includes instructional video)

8 mins

1. Set the scene

A lot of expeditions I follow tend to start photographing when they get there – ‘here we are at base camp’ or ‘here we are in Antarctica’ but the story of the training and the preparation and the build-up is just as fascinating, I think, as the expedition itself.

2. Show the scale of the challenge

It’s very easy to get caught up in close-up action shots and little details and all the minutiae, but it’s important to remember to step back, get some perspective, and try and illustrate the scale of the environment, the scale of the journey, and the scale of the challenge.

3. Stay safe, but be daring

I’ve taken pictures of crossing some very thin ice that is breaking up, thinking to myself ‘I’ve got to tell this story somehow’. I can only do that by having a compact camera and being able to quickly take a photograph of what’s happening. Having a shockproof, waterproof, and freeze-proof camera certainly helps, because I don’t have to worry when I take it into extreme situations.

4. Involve people in what you’re doing

Nowadays I’m able to blog, to send images, and to text back home on a daily basis. I can take the memory card out of my camera, plug that into a little palm top computer, plug that into the phone, and I can send images back within a few minutes of having taken them.

5. Document the lows as well as the highs

It’s always easier to take photographs when you’re in a good mood and the weather’s nice and the sun is shining, but some of the images I am happiest with and most proud of now are where things were really miserable. I’ve got a few self-portraits when I’m really down in the dumps and things were going really badly wrong. But to me now, those are just as important as the beautiful, scenic shots.

Video courtesy of Lynx Content

Ben Saunders is the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton. In October 2012 he will lead a three-man team setting out to retrace Captain Scott’s ill-fated return journey to the South Pole on foot. He is sponsored by Nikon.